


One More Thing

by Tumbleweed_run



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 21:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9845051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tumbleweed_run/pseuds/Tumbleweed_run
Summary: There's one last secret standing in the way of Sherlock and John finally getting together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know... I just, I don't know.  
> I feel like I should warn ya'll that sometimes I post stuff that even I don't like and it should not reflect on my writing abilities as a whole.

Sherlock didn’t understand and that was not acceptable.

He and John, they’d been doing so well since Sherrinford. 221B was repaired, John was back, and Rosie was providing to be an unexpected ray of sunshine in Sherlock’s life. They’d finally begun moving forward and were currently standing on the threshold of something they’d been working towards since they met.

There’d even been dates. They never called them that but what else could it have been when John arranged a sitter and took Sherlock out on Valentine’s day. Sherlock might have generally ignored society’s inane holidays but he knew John paid them heed.

Yet here was John, standing in their kitchen, refusing to kiss him. Sherlock would have fled the second his advances had been rejected except John was holding him in place, refusing to let him back away. 

“I-I don’t understand.” Sherlock finally admitted wincing minutely at the raw emotion in his voice. He tried to step away again but John’s fingers tightened around his arms.

“No. Please.” John pleaded and he dipped his head down far enough Sherlock could no longer see his face.

“You’re not wrong.” John said finally. “It’s not that I don’t want to, I do. God, I want to so badly but I can’t… we can’t.”

John wanted to kiss Sherlock, he’d just admitted it. So why was he preventing them from taking that final step? “Why?”

John sighed and loosened his grip on Sherlock’s arms, hands gently rubbing the spots where his fingers had been. He finally looked up and caught Sherlock’s eyes with his own. “If we do this, you and I, we won’t do secrets. Right?”

Sherlock nodded immediately. John, who had come into Sherlock’s life with trust issues, had had that precious trust pushed past the brink too many times in the past.

“Good.” John nodded, hands now rubbing idle circles along Sherlock’s forearms. Sherlock closed his eyes against the sensation of John’s hands on his body.  “That’s good.” John repeated

There was something more going on, this wasn’t just John wanting to be sure they were on the same page. John was still holding something back.

“John?” Sherlock asked. 

“I can keep secrets too, Sherlock.” John said softly, his hands stilling.

Sherlocks eyes opened in surprise.

John smiled wryly at him. “After you know this, if you still want to, we can move forward.”

“John, I doubt there’s anything you could tell me now that would make me not want this.” Sherlock insisted vehemently.

“I think I just about believe that.” John admitted, letting his hands drop to his sides. “But no more secrets _means_ no more secrets.”

Sherlock had been expecting John to lead him to the sofa or their chairs, to sit him down and lay out whatever this secret was. He didn’t. Instead John smiled softly and turned away, leaving Sherlock standing dazed in the kitchen.

Things went on very much the same as they had been for the next few weeks. There was more physical contact but it was hard to determine if things had been naturally building up to this level of casual touching or if it was directly related to their conversation.

Sherlock felt he was finally, properly, going insane. No drugs needed.

Then one Saturday morning John and Rosie were up and dressed unreasonably early. Sherlock hadn’t slept that night so he’d watched the proceedings with only partial interest from his spot curled up on the sofa until John tuned to him, hands on his hips, and raised an eyebrow.

“If you could get dressed we’ve got a train to catch.” He said.

Sherlock peered over John’s shoulder when he got them tickets to Brighton but John offered no explanation. He merely handed over Rosie so he could dig his wallet out from his pocket.

Rosie, who had been less than thrilled at being woken, dozed against Sherlock’s chest during the ride.

John was seated by Sherlock’s side with his leg pressed against Sherlock’s far more than necessary. John only appeared relaxed, though. Little warring emotions were written all over his features and he was incessantly worrying his bottom lip with his teeth.  He was nervous about whatever they were doing and he wasn’t giving Sherlock any information about what it was.

It _had_ to be about John’s secret.

As soon as they stepped off the train John took Rosie and carried her, as if she was a shield between himself and the rest of the world. He didn’t bother to ask where they were going, John wasn’t going to tell him. Instead, Sherlock followed quietly into a cab.

He was only a little surprised when the cab let them out at a lovely park. Whatever John’s secret was, he was doing a terrific job in keeping its nature from Sherlock.

“We’re a bit early.” John announced after checking his phone.

“For what?” Sherlock asked, finally having had enough of being kept completely in the dark.

John’s mouth tightened into a thin line and he considered the ground. “We’re meeting some people here.”

Sherlock sighed, loudly, but Rosie chose that moment to begin wiggling in her father’s arms. John let her down and they wandered lazily after her as she explored the park. She was still unsteady on her feet and every little slope or change in terrain led to her falling onto her bottom.

“John!”

Both Sherlock and John whipped their heads around to follow the call.

The man it came from was approaching them rapidly with a friendly smile on his face. This man was more noticeably ex-military than even John and that wasn’t taking into account the small military tattoo on his forearm.

“Luke.” John greeted once the man was within speaking distance, he extended a hand.

They both proceeded to indulge in a manly handshake, back slapping included. Sherlock barely managed to keep the urge to roll his eyes under control, John was always reduced to a pile of testosterone when he met up with army buddies.

“Sherlock this is Luke Cooper.” John introduced once he’d finally let go of Luke’s hand. “Luke, Sherlock Holmes.”

“Hold on mate, save the introductions until Hayley and the pack get here.” Luke exclaimed before looking behind him.

Sure enough there was a woman making her way straight towards them, followed closely by no less than five children.

“Jesus, they’ve grown.” John swore under his breath but Luke caught his words and grinned.

“You could have helped.” The woman huffed at Luke as she finally reached them. She didn’t stop but immediately went to John and pulled him into a hug. “Good to see you, John.”

“Hayley.” John smiled returning her embrace. When he pulled back he stooped down and disrupted Rosie’s close examination of the grass. Sherlock didn’t think about it and simply reached over and pulled a few blades from her mouth, she glared at him sourly.

Sherlock was still frustratingly in the dark. When Luke had approached them he’d believed that John’s secret had something to do with his military days. Except, the introduction of the wife and the gaggle of children all but eliminated that possibility.

“Right as I was saying before. This is my partner Sherlock Holmes.”

Sherlock had to remember to breathe and extend his hand in a friendly manner. John had referred to them as partners before, as in crime solving partners, but never to other people. Never in a way that could be construed as ‘romantic’ partner. He was positive a slightly vacant smile had settled across his face.

John, apparently oblivious to Sherlock’s inner struggle, continued. “Sherlock, this is Luke and Hayley Cooper.”

“And this is Rosie?” Luke asked gesturing towards the little girl in John’s arms, as if it were possible it wasn’t Rosie.

“This is she.” John agreed bouncing Rosie slightly, she wasn’t terribly interested in being introduced.

Hayley smiled and cooed at her which coaxed a small smile from the little girl.

“Never thought I’d see the day when Captain Watson settled down with a little one.” Luke said teasingly.

Sherlock considered the other man. He was younger than John by a couple years so it was likely he’d been one of the men under John’s command. Sherlock was only slightly envious.

John shrugged. “Well not all of us are trying to build our own army.”

Hayley, as if remembering, then summarily introduced Sherlock to the Cooper children, who ranged in age from thirteen to three. She mostly pointed in various places around them, the children having immediately wandered off, and rattled off names and ages.

“There’s Daisy, she’s thirteen going on twenty.  Mason, he’s nine and desperately wants to be an only child. Gunner and Chase, they’re six and probably trying to figure out how to string up that poor boy they’re with. And finally, little Poppy, she’s just turned three.” Sherlock tried to smile politely at every introduction but he wasn’t exactly interested in the children. Just because he was positively smitten with Rosie didn’t change his feelings towards small humans in general.

Sherlock lasted exactly thirty minutes of small talk.

It’s not that he hadn’t learned anything, he had. He’d learned that they got together at least once a year for lunch and catching up. He’d learned he was right, Luke did serve under John and when he was telling a story about their shared past he referred to John as Captain Watson. He’d learned that John unconsciously straightened his back every single time he was called Captain Watson. But what he hadn’t learned was what any of this had to do with the secret John had told him about.

“John?” Sherlock breathed after Hayley and Luke had disappeared for the moment off to save a stranger’s child from the clutches of their mischievous twins. 

John sighed and dug his toe into the grass. “Look at the kids, Sherlock.” Was all he said.

Sherlock was about to scream in frustration but he took a deep breath and looked across at the children playing. First, irrationally, at all of the children at the playground and then closer at the Cooper children. And then…

Oh.

 _Oh_.

He must have said that last one out loud because John nodded curtly and stood from the bench they’d relocated too.

“John…”

John cut him off with a head shake and a raised hand. “Later.”

Sherlock managed to remain polite throughout their late lunch and continuously nauseating small talk. He didn’t even snap at the man across from them on the train who kept popping his chewing gum on their ride home. He managed to keep everything calm and normal until they’d fed, bathed and put Rosie into her bed.

The second they reappeared downstairs, though, he couldn’t contain his questions any longer. “John why didn’t you tell me?” He asked John’s disappearing back.

John was in the kitchen fiddling around with bourbon and once he’d discovered they were out of clean drinking glasses he grabbed a mug and dumped several shots into it. “Tell you what?”

John was testing Sherlock, trying to see if he’d really figured the secret out.

“The boy, John. Really, it’s quite obvious.” Sherlock huffed.

“Took you a while, though.” John rebuked from behind his liquor mug.

Sherlock rolled his eyes. “Well I wasn’t looking for _that_.” He admitted. “But once I knew what I was looking at it was rather easy to tell.”

John snorted and threw himself into his chair.

Mason Cooper at age nine hadn’t taken to his father’s towering height (the man had honestly been 15 centimeters taller than Sherlock) the way his siblings had. That in its self wouldn’t have been terribly odd, Hayley wasn’t very tall, but the boys coloring had been all wrong. The four other Cooper children had all had green eyes and brown hair but Mason was blue eyed and blond.  

 “John, why didn’t you tell me you had a son?” Sherlock repeated, stating the facts clearly as he crossed to his own chair.

John shook his head. “Because I don’t.”

“John, really.” Sherlock said rolling his eyes against John’s objections, it was painfully obvious that Mason Cooper had not come from Luke.  

“I don’t, Sherlock.” John insisted. “There is a boy who carries half of my DNA but he’s not my son, he never was.”

Sherlock understood John’s protests now. “Luke… doesn’t know.” It wasn’t a guess. Even if Luke had known his wife had been unfaithful and chose to stay with her and raise the child there was no way he would have continued to be that friendly with John.

“No.” John agreed. “He just thinks Mason takes after Hayley. I honestly thought today after meeting Rosie he might get suspicious but he’s so madly in love with her I don’t think he’ll ever figure it out.”

Sherlock normally would have made a biting comment about sentiment blinding the senses but he realized that wasn’t what John needed to hear right now.

They sat quietly for some time, the silence only broken by the sound of John slowly draining his mug. Once he’d finished, John was the one to break the silence. “Mary didn’t know.”

Sherlock nodded, he’d assumed that. “Why tell me?” He asked.

“No secrets.” John told him, licking his lips, and he then looked down to contemplate the inside of his empty mug. “Also I feel you should be completely aware that I have a history of making terrible decisions when I’m upset that extends past us knowing each other.”

“I take drugs when I’m troubled.” Sherlock reminded him.

John snorted and one side of his mouth twitched upwards in an almost smile. “Not anymore though, right?” He asked looking up at Sherlock.

“Lately I’ve been happier than I’ve been in a long time.” Sherlock confessed. “You’re to blame for that, John. You _and_ Rosie.”

“I can’t say I’ll always make you happy but you can’t do that anymore.” John told him as he set aside his mug.

“I won’t if you promise to stick to buying ugly jumpers when you’re emotional.” Sherlock agreed even though he knew it would be much more difficult than that.

John barked out a laugh and leaned forward extending a hand. “Deal.”

Sherlock glanced down at John’s hand for a moment before shaking his head. “I think this is best, what is it? Sealed with a kiss?”

John grinned broadly and reached forward grabbing Sherlock’s hands and yanking him forward off his chair. Sherlock barely had time to settle his knees beneath him before John was tilting the detectives chin up towards him and pressing their lips together. They kissed until Sherlock was dizzy and panting from both the fact they were kissing, finally _kissing_ , and from the lack of oxygen.

Sherlock didn’t move far but pulled his head back enough to speak. “So this is it? We’re… partners?” He asked hopefully.

John grinned. “Sherlock we’ve always been partners but yes, now we’re partners in everything.”

“Everything.” Sherlock repeated before surging up to recapture John’s lips with his own.

**Author's Note:**

> WTF is this even?  
> Honestly my husband randomly makes little comments because he _knows_ they'll annoy me and this one was spawned from "In season 5 John's going to have a secret evil love child come around and kill them."  
>  No quite that but it was like a damn ear worm and I had to do something with it. IDK
> 
> Also if you're wondering what's up with [All the Queen's Men](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9374852/chapters/21223193) I haven't abandoned it I'm just having difficulty wrapping up ch2.


End file.
